Happy Birthday
by Inked Lotus
Summary: [Normal AU] It's ruby's birthday and her friends and family come to spend it with her, but Qrow is running late for the party which makes the adults concerned about his whereabouts. (I suck at summaries)


"Happy Birthday, Ruby!" Exclaimed her family, the smiles on their faces lit by the candle flames of her cake.

As she blew the candles, the artificial lights of the house turned on, even amongst the cheer of her relatives and friends her wide smile quickly became a faint trace of what it had been a moment ago. Even though she was celebrating her fifteenth birthday with her mom, her aunt and uncle, her cousin and her most beloved friends, the absence of her father was still present on her mind. He had promised her to arrive after they started the celebration, but something on the back of her mind warned her that it was unprovable that it would happen.

As her aunt took the cake back to the kitchen to split it on even servings, her mother tackled her into a hug as her uncle took them a photograph. Her friends were eager to open the presents, mostly for the fact that they had developed a competition to see which of the presents was the preferred by the honour guest, although she was sure that Jaune was the one who would win, he wasn't her best friend for nothing.

"Alright, little pests, take a seat" exclaimed her aunt as she walked back into the room, with the 'oh-so-mighty' touch to deal with kids that she had.

Her aunt Raven wasn't the kindest of people, but Ruby knew that even though she was tough and mean, she always meant good. To be honest, she wasn't really sure how her aunt and Uncle fell in love with each other, he was always a goof and made terrible jokes and she was moody and reserved most of the time. It made her happy that her cousin had the best of both sides, a great sense of humour and the capacity to act always with care despite of what she showed to the rest.

As the children ate the chocolate cake, the grown-ups walked towards the kitchen to try and talk more serious things. Raven wasn't happy that her brother had decided to arrive late at her own kid's party, but it wasn't her time to be mad. Tai, on his part, was worried of the possibility of him not arriving at all, but to him Summer's face was a puzzle. The small woman was leaning against the counter, her sight set on the other side of the window towards the dark of the night.

"Summer, you say the word and I will call that idiot to get his ass here" Raven reassured her as she touched her shoulder, her face stern as always.

"I'm sure he's just busy. Knowing Qrow, he will probably get here at the end of the night with the most amazing gift Ruby has ever seen," said Tai Yang, in an attempt to relieve the tension of the situation.

Qrow Branwen wasn't the type of man that one would call a workaholic, but on few occasions he wouldn't leave a case until he was done with it. He was the number one Private Investigator on all of Vale, which meant that most of his schedule was always full. However, the man always managed to have time for his family, even though living on Patch and working in Vale wasn't easy. The great problem of being the number one was the amount of enemies that you have, and to Qrow that applied on both sides. The cons were always trying to get one step ahead of him in order to kill him and the police forces weren't much of a help for him.

During the past three months Summer had noticed a change in his demeanour. He was calling less, he started to avoid some trips and even prevented Summer from traveling to Vale for a few days and now, he had been incapable of spending his daughter's birthday at home. He had only excused his behaviour telling her that a new case was far more complicated than he had imagined, but to hide the details to a journalist like her wasn't easy.

"Mom! It's time to open the presents, come on!" they heard the little blonde girl's voice call from the living room, which was able to crack a smile from Summer and a grunt from Raven.

"It's okay guys, I'll call him after we open the presents. After all, what kind of mother would I be if I can't smile at my girl's party?" commented the silver-eyed woman with a half-hearted smile.

At the living room, Summer signalled Ruby to sit next to the fire while her friends sat on the floor in front of the cushion, each one of them dressed up in their costumes. Jaune was on his best impersonation of a mummy, Nora was a werewolf and Ren had come as a vampire. The birthday girl was wearing her Red Riding Hood outfit (adapted to look like the outfit of a fifteen-year-old girl, with a short skirt, a black blouse and the signature red hood), and her cousin sported a plain white dress and nothing more (since the celebration was inside the house she decided to be good-old Goldie Locks).

"Alright, let's get this competition started!" exclaimed Nora as she jumped back to her feet holding her fist in the air.

"Very well. I'll go first, then Nora, then Jaune, then the grown-ups" stated Ren with his usual monotone voice as he handed his box towards Ruby.

Ruby just snickered at Ren's present, he was always careful when wrapping it. Her smile grew wider as she remembered the first time he had handed her a present, she got it unwrapped in less than a minute and during that small amount of time, Ren's expression went from his usual blank to a contorted gesture of anguish and suffering. So, in order to avoid that from happening again, every year after that Ruby had always unwrapped her gifts with utter care in order to spare him.

She carefully unwrapped the gift paper to reveal a box filled with ornamental pieces straight from Mistral and two boxes of high quality chocolate, both of them strawberry flavoured. Ruby carefully put everything aside and pulled Ren into a hug, she had been wanting to buy those chocolates since the day she had tried them on Ren's house.

"Okay, the next one is Nora… let's just hope is something harmless" murmured Raven as she placed her arm in front of Yang.

Nora's presents tended to be a concern for the concerns of the parents, most of them had to do with sports, but in a way that not many people would play them so every time they played, someone ended up hurt, most of the time it was Jaune but Raven wasn't going to take any chances.

The box was small and, unlike every other of Nora's presents through her birthdays, it was lighter than any other, which made ruby a curious about what had the redhead gifted her. After all, Nora wasn't characterized for sticking into a stereotype.

She carefully unwrapped the multicolour paper to reveal a rectangular black box. She shot Nora a look of doubt and then proceeded to open the small box to reveal three tickets to The Williams concert.

"My god! Nora, this sold out like a week after they started selling! How did you get them?" Asked the silver eyed girl, tackling the redhead into a hug.

"Well, let's just say that I was planning on giving you this from a long time" replied the green-eyed girl sheepishly.

"Alright the last one is Jaune's, after that you have to choose whose is best and then you can open the grown-up present" commented Ren as he centred his gaze upon the last gift.

"Alright, just bear in mind that this came from my pocket only, okay?" excused Jaune handing her the box.

The girl unwrapped the present almost instantly destroying the paper in the process, her face lit up when she saw a brand-new cell phone, the exterior black with a red rose on the back. She had been pestering her parents for three months that she wanted a new cell phone, but with Qrow distant and Summer not wanting to buy it her goal just seemed impossible.

"Jaune! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" screamed the girl as she hugged him to death, the poor blonde tapping her shoulder and trying to say give up.

"That's not something any brat can buy… spit it, blondie. Did your parents help?" questioned Raven as she glared the boy.

"Hey! I'll let you know that I've worked hard for three months to buy her that" exclaimed the blonde, a fist proudly on his chest.

"That's bullshit!" Huffed the black-haired woman while weaving her hand.

Tai grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from the living room, Summer only let out an awkward chuckle to then follow her sister-in-law. The kids all looked back towards Ruby's new cell phone and started chatting about what could it do.

At the kitchen, Tai was trying to argue with Raven in a low voice but failing in it. As Summer came in, she shut the door behind her. The small woman walked towards the couple and placed a hand on their shoulder.

"I know that you two are mad about Qrow not arriving but try to keep it together" remarked the silver-eyed woman.

"Hey! I'm behaving" retorted Raven in a mumbled shout.

"You just said bullshit in front of a child, Raven. To me that doesn't count as behaving!" Huffed Tai in the same mumbled voice.

"Enough!" snapped Summer. "You either stop this nonsense or I'll cut this party short. Now, I'll go there with my present and you two will bring yours behind me, are we clear?"

She only heard a grunt from Raven and a mumble from the blonde which earned them both a glare as the small woman kneeled to pick up a long rectangular box and walked outside the small area. The black-haired woman scoffed and picked up the small package that she planned to gift to the girl.

Summer let out a small laugh at the sigh she encountered in the room, the group of teens struggled to fit on a photo for Ruby's new phone, she heard a scoff from behind her from her sister-in-law.

"Alright brats! That's enough, settle down for the good gifts," mocked the woman as she walked towards the group.

She handed the box without even waiting for the girl to sit, to what Summer only sighed but she heard Tai groan at the _antics _of her wife and walked back to the kitchen. It was already hard for the silver eyed woman to deal with an absent husband for her to hide the fact that Raven's marriage was failing. The image of Ruby as she attempted to open the small box made her put on the same smile that she had just minutes before. She'll have to endure, for her.

"What is it, honey?" asked the small woman as she kneeled to the side of her child.

"Don't. Know. Won't. Open." At each word the silver eyed girl tried again to open the box to no avail.

"Try all you want; it won't open if you don't know how to do it" replied the woman as she sat on the couch with a laugh.

"Here darling, let me help" offered her mother as she took the small box from her hands.

She struggled for a few minutes with the little thing but at the sound of Raven's laugh she smiled and just _opened_ it, to what her sister-in-law just grimaced at the small sound of the box.

"Here you go sweetie, it's open now" beamed the woman, her child, on the other hand, had a worried smile as she received it.

Inside the broken plastic box were two things, one of them was a small camera and the other one appeared to be some kind of _bug_. The birthday-girl just ran to hug her aunt but failed to notice the disapproval on the face of her mother, a silent agreement occurred between the two and Summer offered her own gift to her child.

The long rectangular box was carefully wrapped so she took her time with it, her mother just had a big smile as she opened the last layer of paper to reveal a silver briefcase.

"You bought me… a briefcase…" commented the girl, clearly underwhelmed.

"Yes" replied back her mother "You care to open it?"

She shot her a doubtful look and took it out, the design was clearly for adult's sleek aluminium covers with horizontal lines embedded in it. The hem had a four-digit passcode that was already introduced so it would _take her some time_ to open to keep the objects inside concealed until she was able to decipher it.

"Mom," commented the child with a dead-pan, "if you wanted me to take my time in obtaining something you should hide it on the house and tell me to look for it."

The woman just looked at her in a somehow shocked expression as she entered the four-digit code in the briefcase with ease. Inside it were notepads, pens, a recorder and a camera. She just sighed and looked back at her mom.

"A reporter kit… you do realize that I'm going to use all of this against you at some point, right?" mocked the child to what she only heard a groan.

As the hours passed, the guests began to leave until only family remained. Raven asked Summer to take Yang for the night as she had some _business _to attend with her husband. The two girls fell asleep at the couch next to the fireplace while she read a book, hardly concentrated in it as the hours passed and Qrow was nowhere to be seen.

When she realized that it was almost midnight, the last remnant of hope that he would arrive disappeared. Summer carefully woke up Yang as she lifted Ruby in her arms. She carried the small girl to her room and slowly closed the door before she walked towards Yang's room.

"You okay, Yang?" the concern in her voice was obvious, she knew that it was rough for the girl to act like everything was okay at her house.

"They are planning on divorcing… but they think I don't know" she mumbled, her eyes fixed on the window of the room.

The small woman walked towards the blonde girl and hugged her. She had seen their relationship bloom, it's prime and now wither at the pass of the time and that was painful to her, she couldn't imagine the pain that the poor girl felt if she was like that.

"If you need to talk, I will always be here, Ruby will too. We are family Yang, no matter what happens…" whispered the woman, her voice with clear sorrow.

"Thanks, aunt Summer" whispered the girl as she pulled the silver eyed woman for a hug.

She walked outside and closed the door to go to her room but the sound of her cell phone stopped her from it. The screen showed that it was Qrow. She walked fast towards her room in an attempt to not wake up the girls but failed to notice that Ruby's door was slightly open.

"Qrow Branwen, where the hell are you?!" mumbled in an almost silent rant

"_Summer, I'm sorry… it all went to shit,_" the almost apologetic voice of her husband replied to her anger.

"what do you mean? Qrow, what happened?" her voice almost broke at the words but she tried to maintain herself whole.

"_Look… the case… I have to leave…" _for a moment she heard a small change in his voice before the last sentence.

"_Tell Ruby I love her… and please, don't come looking for me. You will only endanger yourself and our child… I'll return as soon as I can clear this… I love you_" the las part was practically a whisper.

"Qrow what are you talking about? What-" she was interrupted by the beep at the end of the call.

The tears fell silently, she sobbed as quiet as she could, it was all over. She tried to come up with explanations for Ruby in the morning but her thoughts were cut short at the little girl's voice.

"Mom… is everything okay?"

"I…this…" the words never left her mouth, she just ran to hug her child and stayed like that for a while, crying into her shoulder as she did the same.

A few days later, Raven and Tai had patched up their relationship for a while, at least until Summer was okay and so, they moved to live with her for the time being. Only Raven looked for her brother from time to time, while the others kept the girls safe. With Tai being a cop and Summer a journalist almost every step the kids took was watched. But only time would tell if they were truly safe...

* * *

**Hello, Inked lotus here back with a one-shot. I'm sorry I haven't uploaded anything during this time, but to be honest my muse has been uncooperative.**

**This is a story I plan on using as the prequel t a chaptered fic that I have, but I don't know when I'll be able to upload that, so... no promises that it's going to be soon.**

**As some of you know I uploaded this yesterday but I had a mistake in the format and it just came out wrong, so I hope this time is looking better.**

**Take care everyone, thank you for reading and I hope you have a good week.**


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